RALEIGH, N.C. — For only the third time in franchise history, the Blue Jackets took a 2-0 lead in the first three minutes of a game. After six minutes, they were outshooting the Carolina Hurricanes 7-0 and the sparse home crowd was booing the locals.

But what started out as a dream scenario for the Blue Jackets ended in nightmare fashion.

If the Blue Jackets planned to spend the rest of the night salting away their 2-0 lead, the plan backfired. Eric Staal scored twice and his brother, Jordan, added one, and the Hurricanes scored three times in a span of 2:47 in the third period for a 3-2 victory in front of 13,641 at PNC Arena.

“Under nine minutes to go … and in three minutes everything you’ve done to that point is gone,” Blue Jackets coach Todd Richards said. “Erased.”

As if the loss weren’t painful enough, it allowed the Hurricanes to leapfrog the Blue Jackets into third place in the Metropolitan Division.

“If we’re going to be a playoff team, a 2-0 lead with 10 minutes to go … you have to find a way to close it out,” center Derek MacKenzie said. “I don’t think it was a case of us taking our foot off the pedal.

“But there were chances we had to put the game away, and we let them pass.”

MacKenzie put the Blue Jackets up 1-0 only 2:25 in the game when he was first to the puck after Fedor Tyutin’s slap shot went off the far post behind Hurricanes goalie Anton Khudobin. The lead grew to 2-0 only 17 seconds later, when R.J. Umberger finished a heavy shift by scoring off a Ryan Johansen set-up in the slot.

At that point, it looked as if the Blue Jackets were skating seven players. They were overwhelming the Hurricanes, who might have been saved by the bell in the form of the first TV timeout. Carolina finally got its first shot on goal at the 6:30 mark — followed by a Bronx cheer — and the Blue Jackets had several chances to push the lead to 3-0. The best was Nick Foligno’s rebound attempt, but it rang off the crossbar.

“I had a chance there to make it 3-0, and that’s frustrating on my part,” Foligno said. “It’s a totally different game. We let them have the momentum, and that’s a team that feeds off momentum.”

The score remained 2-0 well into the third, but the Hurricanes outshot the Blue Jackets 35-17 after the opening flurry.

Eric Staal scored between Sergei Bobrovsky’s pads at 11:18 of the third, and scored again on a deflected goal off Bobrovsky’s left shoulder one minute later to tie the score at 2.Two shifts later, Jordan Staal scored off his backhand despite being tangled with Jackets defenseman Ryan Murray to give the Hurricanes the lead.

Khudobin, who nearly was pulled early in the first period, made three key stops in the final six minutes to preserve the Hurricanes’ fourth straight victory.

The Blue Jackets have lost two straight since an eight-game winning streak. They play the Ottawa Senators tonight at Nationwide Arena.

“This team has responded after every tough game,” Richards said. “I suspect they’ll do the same.”

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